“The cause is great, and it is for me I say, give me liberty or give me death.”
Some 236 years after the uprising in Boston Harbor, in reaction to a government that was abusing funds in the public treasury at the expense of individual liberties, a Chicago radio host “got mad as hell and said: “He was not going to take it anymore.” On Feb. 19, 2009, Rick Santelli of CNBC challenged his disciples to join him at a “Tea Party” to protest runaway spending and violations of of their Constitutional rights. This was the catalyst that christened America’s Tea Party Movement.
When patriots angrily destroyed a shipload of tea in Boston Harbor in 1773, their “Tea Party” was the most significant incident in Western hemispherical political history. What began as a resistance movement against violations of man’s God-given rights provided the impetus for the revolution for independence and formal self-governing. This not only made America a nation, but the architect of modern republican governing. It was the best of times for liberty and the worst of times for tyranny.
“It is time everyone pays their fair share.”
With American socialism forced upon us, there is no better time to mark the 10th anniversary of the Tea Party movement than to call them back into action. The Tea Parties were individual groups of patriots, unlike today’s individual protesters. They were well organized and knew their Constitution. They were fed up with Barack Obama’s polices of “fairness and identity voter coddling” as they watched Congress pass every law he proposed.
Viewed as a threat to Obama’s extremism, the Tea Parties were labeled right wing agitators. The liberal media recanted the left’s tried-and-true tactic, condemning the patriots as a white patriarchy resistance movement, angered over Obama’s race. Yet well over 30% of them were non-white.
– Barack Obama
As Obama, Pelosi, Reed and Congress doubled down on assaults against our Constitution and our liberty with partisan spending, the Tea Party movement exploded. Peaceful organized protesters all over the U.S. were confronted with insurgents and union workers, paid to disrupt protests against Obamacare. Subversives insulted them, tried to start fights, but could not disrupt their mission to fix America.
Tea Partiers were patriotic, religious middle and upper class moderates and conservatives. They began each protest pledging allegiance to America, and ended with prayers of gratitude for liberty. When attacked by leftist agitators, they turned the other cheek in a show of strength. As buses of paid union protesters arrived to harass them, they refused to take the bait and kept on protesting.
– David Webb
“Obamacrats couldn’t make them act like them and resort to violence.”
Among the speakers at the rally were House Majority Leader Dick Armey and other congressional Republicans, including Reps. Mike Pence of Indiana, Tom Price of Georgia, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and South Carolina’s Sen. Jim DeMint. Pence set the tone for the rally: “Americans wanted health care reform, but never wanted government to run their health care.”
On Sept. 12, 2009, a Tea Party protest, the largest peaceful protest in history against federal abuse, took place in Washington, D.C. against Obamacare. The Tea Party was upset at how Obama used crooked deals and shady tactics to get it through Congress. According to FreedomWorks, an estimated crowd of over 600,000 conservative protesters participated without one act of violence.
Groups of agitators tried to disrupt this landmark gathering throughout the day, calling them racists and radicals and shouting obscenities. The patriots continued to ignore them until they wimped out. By the time they left Washington, the capital grounds were cleaner than when they had first arrived.
Throughout the event, protesters prayed, sang patriotic songs, chanted political slogans, waved the American flag and signs. Gene Healy of the libertarian Cato Institute issued this statement: “They had grave concerns about the economic future of our nation and theft of free market health care.”
Obama claims his greatest gift to America was one they did not want: Socializing their free market health care on Christmas Eve 2009. And it cost him. During his two terms in office, Democrats lost the House, the Senate, and more state legislatures and governors than any other president due to the Tea Party.
In 2013, an IRS official admitted under oath that Obama had asked them to thoroughly investigate the Tea Party and other center-right groups. But this backfired when over 500 groups sued the IRS and won “substantial settlements.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said: “There is no excuse for this! These groups deserve an apology from the IRS. This abuse of power is absolutely wrong.”
– Barack Obama
“Republicans encouraged the “tea-baggers” to protest everything.”
The Tea Party was the only faction in the Republican Party that showed concern for civil liberties. Sen. Rand Paul tirelessly safeguarded the 4th and 5th Amendments. Tea Partiers had a fetish for intransigence over compromise that raised the bar on eventual compromises on policies for the moderates and conservatives. Today’s socialist left is garishly demanding and won’t compromise.
Ten years after the Tea Party movement began, the House Tea Party Caucus is long gone. So too are most of the 87 House Republicans elected in the biggest GOP sweep since the 1920s. In a recent Rasmussen survey, only 8% of all voters identify with the Tea Party. In 2010, Rasmussen found that 39% of voters surveyed identified with the Tea Party and 41% agreed with their politics.
“Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”
But it’s hard to celebrate the anniversary of someone who can’t be found. What happened to the Tea Party? Average Americans, not patriotic organizations or Tea Party groups, elected Donald Trump. And most average Americans don’t belong to organized political groups. They depend on citizen-led political activists to inform them when Congress and the president need their help. Yet Tea Parties have been asleep for almost a decade. It is time these Rip Van Winkles wake up and put on a pot of tea for American liberty.
Aristotle wrote, “Ignorance is dangerous.” The socialist left claims they have a mandate. Yet the final tally shows Biden only won by an ambiguous 4%? But we all know numbers don’t mean a thing to socialists. A win is a mandate, even if 50% of America voted against socialism. The right of center and conservatives in Congress will be eaten alive without citizen support. We need the Tea Party and their organized leadership to rescue our liberty by electing patriots in the midterms.
– Phyllis Diller
“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
The far left and socialists control government and traditional media. Conservative views are being censored on social media, as well as radio, TV and print media. We need organized groups like the Tea Party who are willing to do what they do best. We need help vetting and supporting patriotic candidates who will win the midterms. We need to bring back the Tea Party caucuses and groups around the nation, to keep the fires of patriotism alive. We need organized, dedicated patriots now.
– Edward Abbey
By William Haupt III | The Center Square
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Reposted with permission
